Cryptocoin is a library for processing information from a Bitcoin-based cryptocoin network and wrapping that data in a useful and Ruby-like manner. Although based off of bitcoin-ruby in concept, it deviates largely due to its philosophy in implementations; rather than trying to do everything, cryptocoin just provides wrappers around cryptocoin structures such as a block or merkle tree. Due to this difference, it cannot do certain features such as block validation, as block validation requires information beyond the basic structure (multiple transactions).

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'cryptocoin'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install cryptocoin

Since Ruby uses the method hash as an internal descriptor for objects, in general, the result of a hashing function such as RIPEMD160 or SHA256 will be referred to as a digest.

Cryptocoin will only work with cryptocurrencies that follow the Bitcoin protocol.

This library does not perform validation of blocks or transactions; it only acts as a data parser. The reason for this is that validation is inherently coupled with a storage solution, such as an SQL database, for certain validation rules and the purpose of this library is only to parse data. For a library that performs validation, see cryptocoin-validator.

For importing from a blockchain data file, see cryptocoin-import.

require 'cryptocoin'
key_pair = Cryptocoin::Structure::KeyPair.generate
public_address = key_pair.public_key.to_address.to_s
private_address = key_pair.private_key.to_address.to_s

(Note: The reason to_s is called is that to_address creates a new Cryptocoin::Structure::Address instance which can then be turned into a string via to_s.)

require 'cryptocoin'
script = Cryptocoin::Script.from_s("OP_1")
script.parse! #=> true

Officially supported (coming soon!):

• cryptocoin-validator: a block and transaction validator based off of Bitcoin protocol validation rules. Works with SHA256 (Bitcoin) and Scrypt (Litecoin) based currencies
• cryptocoin-import: a blockchain data file importer. Reads a blockchain file, i.e. blk00001.dat, and imports it into the database.

A lot of this code couldn't be possible without bitcoin-ruby, the library that started this idea. Also a huge help were the Bitcoin wiki and the current Bitcoin source code v0.9. A special thanks to the bitcoinj library for its Script directive processing, especially for OP_CHECKSIG.

• Support for BIP 0037, titled, "Connection Bloom Filtering"
• Support for other cryptocurrencies besides Litecoin, Bitcoin, and Dogecoin

If you find a bug or would like to add a new feature, fork the library and create a PR based on your changes! Keep the code consistent with my existing code, and follow similar conventions to the existing ones.

When creating a PR that adds a new feature, make sure you justify its utility to the base library, with some use cases in the PR or in a gist. Ideally the library will be kept as slim as possible, and additonal non-essential functionality for data parsing will be added to other libraries.

One area I would really like help with is adding various networks to the library, as I only included a handful (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin). If you're knowledgeable with a different cryptocoin and want to add it to the library, fork, create, and request to pull it! I'd love to have more than just three!

1. Fork it ( https://github.com/joshuasmock/cryptocoin/fork )
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create a new Pull Request